Timothy Dalton Interview In EW

Entertainment Weekly's Popwatch blog has an interview with Timothy Dalton in honor of his debut as a recurring character on tonight's Chuck. I definitely recommend checking it out.  Dalton opens up more about his tenure as Bond–and specifically about comparisons between his gritty, character-driven take on playing the superspy and Daniel Craig's–than I've seen him do in the past.  He also talks about his Chuck role as cardigan-wearing MI6 paper pusher Gregory Tuttle (who may prove to be more than meets the eye) and his upcoming part in The Tourist as a policeman.  That's the first I've heard about the nature of his role in the Johnny Depp/Angelina Jolie thriller. Unsurprisingly, he reveals that it was admiration for director Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck that led him to take the job!  The EW interviewer, Christian Blauvelt, seems to be a Bond geek after my own heart, barely containing his inner fanboy as he reminds Dalton how The Living Daylights begins, reciting the yacht girl's line about wanting to meet a "real man."  It's very funy–and informative.  Check it out. 
(Via CBn Forums)

Russian Spy Blows Her Cover... Again

Who didn't see this coming?  Months after being exposed by the FBI as a member of a cell of Russian sleeper spies and being subsequently deported from the United States, tabloid sensation Anna Chapman is on the cover of the Russian edition of men's magazine Maxim.  And, naturally, she's in a provocative Bond Girl pose (albeit a freakishly Photoshopped one), complete with pistol.  The title of the layout/interview is, unsurprisingly, "For Your Eyes Only."  Read more at The Washington Post.

EW Covers Bond

The fear-mongering yellow press is at it again, drumming up rumors about James Bond's imminent demise.  But at least it means a new Entertainment Weekly Bond cover - and a pretty snazzy one at that.  The story itself (under the dramatic headline "Goodbye, Mr. Bond") appears to be little more than regurgitated rumors and heresay combined with new quotes from former and rival studio executives who stand to benefit from prematurely heralding the death of 007.  Of course the subject is MGM's financial woes that currently have the next Bond film on hold.  They even invoke the nightmarish six-year gap that Bond fans had to suffer between 1989 and 1995 - and unfairly lay the blame for that on poor Timothy Dalton.  Relax, guys.  James Bond has survived the worst villains in the world and he'll survive this latest hurdle as well, no matter how long it takes to weather the storm.  (I just hope Daniel Craig sticks around!)  Chicken Little quotes like “You lose too much momentum. Even for Bond, it could be deadly” (from a gleeful former MGM exec) are nothing more than the padding required to turn a nonstory into a cover story on a slow news week.  But as I said, we do get a cool new Bond cover for our collections!